Deportation flight from U.S. arrives in Haiti with 46 passengers

Dozens of U.S. deportees from the United States were aboard a flight that landed in Haiti from Miami on Tuesday. The plane arrived in Cap-Haïtien, in the north of the country, with 46 passengers, 25 of whom were convicted felons, according to a Haitian government source.

The Trump administration discarded protections that shielded roughly half a million Haitians from deportation, meaning they would lose their work permits and could be subject to removal from the country. Many of the Haitians deported Tuesday had crossed into the United States illegally or were waiting for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) — which grants individuals legal authority to remain in the country but does not offer a long-term pathway to citizenship — for Haitians.

Makenson Estilice had been in Brazil since 2013 but decided to go to the U.S. in hopes of obtaining Temporary Protection Status under President Biden. “I traveled to Mexico and then entered the United States.” he said. The decision to terminate the TPS was announced in February and is part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to fulfill campaign promises regarding mass deportations and specifically to reduce the use of the Temporary Protected Status designation, which was significantly expanded under the Biden administration to cover about one million immigrants.

As the security situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate, human rights and migrant advocacy groups urged a halt to deportation flights to Haiti, stating that the U.S. was “knowingly condemning the most vulnerable, who came to us in their time of need, to imminent danger.”